STEPHENVILLE – No. 24 Tarleton Volleyball opened Lone Star Conference play with a sweep of Texas Woman’s on Friday in the Wisdom Volleyball Gym.
The TexAnns (7-2, 1-0) landed .333 percent of their kills with only nine errors in the three sets while holding the Pioneers to a .094 hitting percentage and forced them into 22 errors.
Amber Strange led the TexAnns with 10 kills, while Adriana Darthuy and Lauren Kersey each recorded nine kills.
The TexAnns led from start to finish in the opening set, building an early lead at 14-8 behind a 5-1 run in the middle of the set. TWU fought back to within two twice in the set, at 17-15 and 21-19, but the TexAnns never let them any closer. Strange delivered a kill followed by Michaela Rodriguez’s service ace that pushed the TexAnn lead to 24-19 and Darthuy closed out the set with a kill to win 25-21.
The second set was more back and forth to open up, featuring 10 lead changes and nine ties in the first 28 total points. Trailing 14-13, the TexAnns emerged with an 8-0 run to take command at 21-14. TWU was forced into five errors during the run while Darthuy delivered an ace and Kersey and McManus, who had eight kills in the match, delivered points during the run. The TexAnns closed the set with a 4-0 stretch led my McManus’ ace to win 25-16 and take a 2-0 lead in the match.
The TexAnns used another late run in the third set to complete the sweep after holding a one-point lead at 11-10. Alexis Applewhite delivered two straight kills as part of a 7-2 run to put the TexAnns up 18-12. Strange followed with four kills in the next five TexAnn points to go up 23-14. Applewhite and Darthuy delivered the final points of the match to win 25-16 and complete the sweep.
Adriana Knutson led the defense with 14 digs and also added five assists in the win. In addition to her nine kills, Darthuy added 12 digs. Kayla Brannon posted 19 assists while Blanca Izquierdo added 18 assists.
Tarleton will turn around to host No. 17 Texas A&M-Commerce on Saturday at 2 p.m. for the TexAnns’ second top-25 matchup of the season.
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